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THIS JUNKY SEA WORLD, TRASHED

Sea World Management & Trading, Inc. and Edmon Fajardo were recently
convicted for maintaining false and incomplete records relating to the
discharge of oil and garbage from an oil tanker that was operating off
the coast of Texas, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey
H. Wood and United States Attorney Ryan K. Patrick for the Southern District
of Texas. The defendants were also sentenced by the court.

Sea World Management & Trading, Inc. and Fajardo pleaded guilty to
two felony violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, 33 U.S.C.
§ 1908(a), for failing to accurately maintain the Sea Faith’s
Oil Record Book and Garbage Record Book. Under the terms of the plea agreement,
the company will pay a total fine of $2.25 million and serve a 3-year
term of probation during which all vessels operated by the company and
calling on U.S. ports will be required to implement a robust Environmental
Compliance Plan. Fajardo was sentenced to six months incarceration to
be followed by two years supervised release and a $2,000 fine.

Sea World Management & Trading, Inc. is a tank vessel operating company,
and Fajardo is the master of the tank vessel Sea Faith. Both admitted
that oil cargo residues and machinery space bilge water were illegally
dumped from the Sea Faith directly into the ocean while the vessel was
transiting to Corpus Christi, TX, without the use of required pollution
prevention equipment. They also admitted that these discharges were not
recorded in the vessel’s Oil Record Book as required. Specifically,
on five different occasions between March 10, 2017, and March 18, 2017,
Fajardo ordered crew members to illegally discharge oily waste from various
locations of the vessel’s cargo/deck spaces. These oily waste discharges
bypassed the use of the vessel’s required oil discharge monitoring
equipment and were done while the vessel was in the Caribbean Sea and
the Gulf of Mexico.

Sea World Management & Trading, Inc. and Fajardo further admitted that
on March 10, 2017, and March 15, 2017, Fajardo ordered crew members to
throw plastics, empty steel drums, oily rags, batteries, and empty paint
cans directly overboard into the ocean. None of these garbage discharges
were recorded as required in the vessel’s Garbage Record Book.

The cases were investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi,
U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, and Environmental Protection Agency-Criminal
Investigation Division. The cases were prosecuted by Trial Attorney Stephen
Da Ponte of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice,
and Assistant U.S. Attorney-In-Charge Julie K. Hampton of the U.S. Attorney's
Office for the Southern District of Texas.